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For Earth Day, Try These Green Classroom Activities (Downloadable)

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Earth Day is April 22 in the United States and the day the spring equinox occurs in some parts of the world. It’s a day to reflect on the work being done to raise awareness of climate change and the need to protect natural resources for future generations. Protecting the earth can feel like an enormous, distant undertaking to young people. To help them understand that they can play a role by focusing on their backyards or school yards, educators can scale those feelings of enormity to manageable activities that make a difference.

We collected simple ideas for teachers and students to educate, empower, and build a connection with nature so that they may be inspired to respect it and protect it. Classrooms can be the perfect greenhouse to grow future stewards of the environment.

Click to Download the Activities

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Indiana's proposed high school diploma changes will be game-changing

Indiana is facing a dual crisis: Fewer Hoosiers are pursuing education after high school while, at the same time, employers continue to cite workforce development concerns. The Indiana Department of Education’s new proposal to update high school diploma requirements will allow students to pursue more work-based learning opportunities – a key step in solving both issues.

While three-fourths of Indiana high school students say they intend to pursue some form of education beyond graduation,  just over half actually go to college. From there, only about two-thirds  of the students who attend an Indiana public college graduate within six years. This means a majority of Hoosier students enter the labor market without a degree or credentials.

Now consider that by 2031, 72% of jobs in the U.S. will require a college degree and/or training beyond high school. It’s clear our state’s current talent shortages are only projected to worsen.

One way to increase the number of Hoosiers with education and training beyond high school is to encourage them to pursue work-based learning, including modern youth apprenticeship.

Indiana’s youth apprenticeship model, currently in the pilot phase, allows 11th grade students to participate in a three-year paid work-and-learn program during which students work year-round. It culminates in a high school diploma, college credit and an industry credential, all while preparing students for in-demand careers.

These apprenticeships play a key role in presenting potential career paths while also meeting the entry-level staffing needs of employers. Some students may choose to continue their education by enrolling in college, while others may opt to begin working immediately after high school, utilizing the skills developed during their apprenticeship. In either case, the number of Hoosiers who pursue education after high school will increase and add to the skilled workforce.

As the co-chairs of  CEMETS iLab Indiana , a coalition of more than 120 Indiana leaders working to build and scale a statewide modern youth apprenticeship system, we see youth apprenticeship as a key solution to the state’s mounting workforce crisis. However, the system can only function as intended if we rethink the high school experience. We must remove existing barriers students face in accessing this type of work-based learning.

Studies have shown that many skills are better taught through work-based learning than the traditional classroom, yet Indiana’s current diploma requirements make it difficult for a student to participate and still earn the credits needed to graduate on time.

In the Department of Education's new proposal, work-based learning counts toward required credits, freeing up time in the high school schedule to work offsite. In turn, this will make opportunities like youth apprenticeship much more accessible to students.

By updating Indiana’s high school diploma requirements, more students will graduate with the skills and experience they need to be successful. This ensures they have a clear, seamless transition to their next step, whether they’re beginning their career or pursuing additional degrees or credentials.

Indiana must take bold action to reform its education and workforce development system to deliver better outcomes for individuals, employers, and the state’s economy. The Indiana Department of Education’s proposal to streamline the state’s high school graduation requirements is a critical step to making this a reality and will be a game-changer for our economy and for all Hoosiers.

David Becker is chairman and CEO of First Internet Bank. Claire Fiddian-Green is president & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.

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What the New Overtime Rule Means for Workers

One of the basic principles of the American workplace is that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. Simply put, every worker’s time has value. A cornerstone of that promise is the  Fair Labor Standards Act ’s (FLSA) requirement that when most workers work more than 40 hours in a week, they get paid more. The  Department of Labor ’s new overtime regulation is restoring and extending this promise for millions more lower-paid salaried workers in the U.S.

Overtime protections have been a critical part of the FLSA since 1938 and were established to protect workers from exploitation and to benefit workers, their families and our communities. Strong overtime protections help build America’s middle class and ensure that workers are not overworked and underpaid.

Some workers are specifically exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime protections, including bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees. This exemption, typically referred to as the “EAP” exemption, applies when: 

1. An employee is paid a salary,  

2. The salary is not less than a minimum salary threshold amount, and 

3. The employee primarily performs executive, administrative or professional duties.

While the department increased the minimum salary required for the EAP exemption from overtime pay every 5 to 9 years between 1938 and 1975, long periods between increases to the salary requirement after 1975 have caused an erosion of the real value of the salary threshold, lessening its effectiveness in helping to identify exempt EAP employees.

The department’s new overtime rule was developed based on almost 30 listening sessions across the country and the final rule was issued after reviewing over 33,000 written comments. We heard from a wide variety of members of the public who shared valuable insights to help us develop this Administration’s overtime rule, including from workers who told us: “I would love the opportunity to...be compensated for time worked beyond 40 hours, or alternately be given a raise,” and “I make around $40,000 a year and most week[s] work well over 40 hours (likely in the 45-50 range). This rule change would benefit me greatly and ensure that my time is paid for!” and “Please, I would love to be paid for the extra hours I work!”

The department’s final rule, which will go into effect on July 1, 2024, will increase the standard salary level that helps define and delimit which salaried workers are entitled to overtime pay protections under the FLSA. 

Starting July 1, most salaried workers who earn less than $844 per week will become eligible for overtime pay under the final rule. And on Jan. 1, 2025, most salaried workers who make less than $1,128 per week will become eligible for overtime pay. As these changes occur, job duties will continue to determine overtime exemption status for most salaried employees.

The rule will also increase the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (who are not entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA if certain requirements are met) from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year on July 1, 2024, and then set it equal to $151,164 per year on Jan. 1, 2025.

Starting July 1, 2027, these earnings thresholds will be updated every three years so they keep pace with changes in worker salaries, ensuring that employers can adapt more easily because they’ll know when salary updates will happen and how they’ll be calculated.

The final rule will restore and extend the right to overtime pay to many salaried workers, including workers who historically were entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA because of their lower pay or the type of work they performed. 

We urge workers and employers to visit  our website to learn more about the final rule.

Jessica Looman is the administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Follow the Wage and Hour Division on Twitter at  @WHD_DOL  and  LinkedIn .  Editor's note: This blog was edited to correct a typo (changing "administrator" to "administrative.")

• Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• overtime rule

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Ann Arbor schools refused to save money for years. Now jobs will be lost. | Opinion

In front of hundreds of protesting Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers, staff and parents, the Ann Arbor Board of Education voted on April 11 to issue layoff notices to an as-yet undetermined number of employees.  

As hard as the decision was for the seven members of the board — two of them former teachers, and four with children in the district — the reality is that they had no choice. A plan for resolving the district’s $25 million budget shortfall was due to the Michigan Department of Treasury on Monday.  

How did a prestigious district like Ann Arbor get here, seemingly overnight? According to the district, it's a combination of financing 480 additional staff positions, even as prolonged pandemic school closures lost Ann Arbor schools 1,123 students, and with them, more than $10 million in state funding tied to enrollment. This, in turn, was compounded by a $14 million budget error that wasn’t discovered until after the board — believing the district was in good financial shape — last year approved a long overdue 2% salary increase for teachers.  

What the superintendent and board have not mentioned is Ann Arbor schools’ decade-long financial gamble.  

Even facing this shortfall, the district would likely have been in better shape had it followed the trend of other Michigan school districts: Build up the district’s fund balance. That’s the safety net in the bank, a rainy day fund the state requires school districts to maintain.  

AAPS certainly could have put more money in the bank before the pandemic. Or during it, as the district received nearly $22 million in federal pandemic relief money and a historic per pupil funding increase from the state.

District leaders chose not to.  

For a decade, Ann Arbor schools former superintendent and board chose to spend, not save. They defended keeping the fund balance low, saying that spending on new programs would boost enrollment, and even that it was the morally correct way to go. 

Ann Arbor gambled that enrollment would never decline

Ann Arbor wasn’t struggling before 2020. It was, and still is, in one of Michigan’s wealthiest communities. For the last decade, enrollment was rapidly increasing, until Ann Arbor's school-closure pandemic policies — extended long after neighboring districts were back in the classroom — drove families away.  

The general fund balance is the money a district is supposed to keep in reserve in case something disastrous happens — like a $14 million budget mistake, or a lawsuit, both of which happened to AAPS in the past year. Having money in reserves allows the distric to keep paying salaries and benefits while figuring out a longer-term solution to a budget shortfall.  

The Michigan School Business Officials organization recommends that school districts maintain a fund balance equal to 15% of annual expenditures. If a district’s fund balance drops below 5% for more than two consecutive years, it can be taken over by a state-appointed emergency manager.  

Between the 2008 recession and 2014, Michigan schools were struggling, and on average had fund balances under 10%, according state data portal MiSchoolsData.org. 

As school revenues rebounded between 2014 and 2019, the average fund balance for Michigan school districts increased to more than 15%. With federal pandemic emergency funding, many districts took the opportunity to further increase their savings. As of the last school year, Michigan school districts were holding an average 21.2% of regular general fund expenses in reserve, according to MiSchoolsData. 

According to the amended AAPS budget from February of this year, total expenditures will be over $321.4 million, up from the $312 million projected in the original budget. The projected fund balance at the end of this year will be roughly $6.3 million , about 2% of revenues, below the state's 5% threshold.

If Ann Arbor had saved the recommended 15%, the district's fund balance would be $48.2 million. 

Other districts are keeping this much revenue in reserve because officials know their financial positions are dependent on federal, state and county tax money, which can be unpredictable. Another big national recession could sharply cut state school funding. Districts are also at risk if a local school tax isn't renewed, in part because districts repay money borrowed for specific purposes through tax levies. That could happen in Ann Arbor this year if the county’s special education bond isn’t renewed by voters.   

And, of course, districts want to avoid state intervention.

Committed to bad financial strategy

For years, Ann Arbor Public Schools’ auditors pointed out the district’s low fund balance as something to watch, even while giving the district a clean audit, noting that a more substantial savings account would improve financial sustainability.

But the district’s last superintendent insisted that keeping the fund balance low was sound strategy.  

In only one year of former AAPS Superintendent Jeanice Swift’s decade-long tenure was the district’s fund balance above 10%. For several years, it was barely above the board’s self-imposed requirement of 6%. Although some board members did raise questions, since 2014, the AAPS board of trustees agreed with Swift’s strategy as the right one for their wealthy community.   

Not saving money, Swift argued, allowed the district to invest more into the schools, adding new programs like International Baccalaureate, a virtual high school and a fully virtual elementary launched in the 2021-2022 school year, using pandemic relief funds to pay for virtual teachers, a virtual principal, a virtual librarian and even a virtual gym teacher. The district anticipated an ongoing demand for virtual education, but the elementary school closed after one school year.

Board members endorsed Swift's strategy.  

“Our fund balance is not as high as other districts, but we have chosen to commit to our community and to our community’s values to address our students’ needs, and sometimes that requires us to dip into the fund balance,” said then-school board president Rebecca Lazarus at the board’s Nov. 16, 2022 budget meeting, when the fund balance was 6.66%.  

It was a risky strategy, Susan Baskett, the district’s longest serving trustee, acknowledged at a panel at the Ann Arbor Democrats’ monthly meeting, held on April 13. 

But Baskett said she had no regrets. Spending money, not saving it, was the will of the community.  

The strategy had, after all, worked for AAPS — as long as enrollment kept rising, year after year, and nothing happened to the economy.  

Ann Arbor's COVID crash 

When the pandemic hit, the schools closed and students left. And the federal relief dollars used to fill the salaries and benefits for certain positions like "virtual school principal" have dried up.  

Now, when the district really could use money in the bank to get through the $25 million budget shortfall, it is left with few choices: borrowing from banks using next year’s revenue as collateral, brutal cuts to beloved programs and laying off teachers — all of which likely will lead to further declines in enrollment.  

Other districts may be tempted to follow this strategy, as pandemic relief dollars expire and Michigan's population declines, keeping the rainy day fund low by design, reinvesting those dollars in new programs to attract families and grow district enrollment.  

Ann Arbor offers a cautionary tale. Spending instead of saving may work, as long as enrollment keeps going up. But when it comes crashing down, it’s a hard fall. 

Lena Kauffman is a freelance writer and the parent of three children attending Ann Arbor Public Schools. She’s been a close follower of the Ann Arbor Board of Education since 2020, when the schools closed and Ann Arbor students were forced to learn online only. In 2022, she ran unsuccessfully for school board to advocate for the well-being of children and families in the district, and to ensure more transparency in school board decision making. Her commentary and coverage of the Ann Arbor school board can be found on X under @LenaKauffman. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters , and we may publish it in print and online.

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24,000 Bengal teachers to lose jobs after High Court order on illegal hirings

Calcutta high court on monday cancelled the 2016 job panel for teachers' recruitment constituted by the bengal commission in the case of school jobs scam. nearly 24,000 jobs have been cancelled by the court..

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• Illegally recruited teachers to return salaries within four weeks
• All appointments through 2016 state-level entrance exam cancelled
• Court orders re-evaluation of 23 lakh OMR sheets

The Calcutta High Court on Monday cancelled the entire 2016 recruitment panel for school teachers constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSCC) in the case of jobs scam. Nearly 24,000 jobs have been dismissed by the court.

During the hearing, a division bench comprising Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi said that school teachers who were recruited illegally (blank OMR sheet) will need to give back their salaries within four weeks. The district magistrate has been tasked with collecting the money from these teachers.

The cancelled recruitment panel includes all appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff, hired through an WBSC entrance examination in 2016, to various state-government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal.

The bench also ordered the re-evaluation of as many as 23 lakh OMR sheets (test paper) of the recruitment entrance exam that had been conducted.

It rejected a request by some appellants for a stay on the order. The bench also directed the CBI to undertake further investigation into the matter with respect to the appointment process, and submit a report in three months.

The WBSSC has been asked to initiate a fresh appointment process.

More than 23 lakh candidates appeared for the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) conducted by the WBSSC for over 24,000 vacant posts.

Hundreds of job aspirants, awaiting outside the court premises for the verdict, rejoiced as soon as it was delivered.

The High Court had concluded the hearing in the case on March 20 and the judgment was reserved by the division bench. The CBI was probing the case on an earlier order by the court. The federal agency had arrested former Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in 2022 for his alleged links in the scam.

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